which way to choose
by suitheardt
Summary: Kyoko receives a letter from Corn! Whats the meaning behind this?
1. Prelude

skip beat and its characters, locations,... don't belong to me

* * *

It was the first of march and the warmest beginning of spring in Tokio for at least 30 years as well.

All day long the radio- and tv-stations wouldn't find another topic to report on. As the day came to its end and the sunset started, in a spacious hall at the edge of the town you could hear a loud exclamation and a heap of devoted sighs following.

"And cut. That's it for today folks. Well done work everyone." The director of Box R stood up from his comfortable chair and walked over to one of his main actresses.

"Hey Natsu, very impressive improvisation at the end of the last scene."

Said girl now turned around towards the director and accusingly raised her eyebrows before she asked with a dangerously velvet voice: "Did you expect something else?"

"Uh...no, of course not. Well I'll be going then. Bye." With this he already disappeared again in the opposite direction while mumbling Saved just in time, gotta be careful what I say when she's still in character.

Satisfied with the effect she obtained Natsu went to her wardrobe, not without giving off an elegance and beauty,that would put any model to shame, with each and every step of her flawless legs.

There she changed into a fluttering light blue chiffondress, which she just bought for a low price on sale a few days ago with a lot of luck and elbowpower. As she glanced in the full-length mirror she was Kyoko again.

She sighted. It had been a rather long and exhausting day, on which she had to handle a mountain of documents, arrange files, run errands through the whole LME building and even with a taxi merely came at the last minute to start filming the scenes for Box R.

In between she had to endure the dance lessons of the acting section. She had no idea if her spinning head resulted from the immense pensum of steps and movements she tried to memorize or if the rotations which seemed to have no end where the cause for that. Well at least she had the chance to see her best friend Moko-san for a short time.

Now all she wanted and wished for was to get home, drink a hot cup of soothing green tea and cuddle herself up in her futon.

However as she opened the door to the darumaya, she nearly collided with the okami-san who seemed to have waited for her for quiet a while. Curious she watched how the older woman headed for the neighboring room just to rush out of it a few moments later and return to the girls side with something white in her right hand.

"Here Kyoko-chan. This letter was delivered for you today."

Meanwhile Kyoko was too suprised to accept the letter, after all it was the first one she had ever received. She stood there frozen like a statue, stared at the letter and it took her some effort to hold back the tears which had already gathered at the corners of her eyes.

"Don't you want to know who sent it to you?"

With this question the girl awoke from her rigidness and slowly extended her hand to eventually take possession of her mail like it was the most precious jewel in the whole world.

She hardly felt the weight of the envelope in her palm before she called out a quick "Thank you!" to the okami-san and sprinted to her room in the upper floor.

After she arrived there, she sat down on her futon with crossed legs and and scanned the envelope with her eyes for any traces of the sender. She looked at the front and the back, at the top and the bottom, she turned it back and forth again and again but couldn't find a name. So she finally decided to open the letter.

What she unfolded then, was a single paper covered with a neatly handwriting which would cost any normal human being some time to attain. Once she were done admiring the writing she could barely hold herself back and began reading the letter:

_Dear Kyoko,_

_I'm back in Japan and would like to see you again._

_Unfortunately I'm not in possession of a fixed address, but if you want to meet me too, then please come to the south entrance of Tokio's city parc on the next saturday at 2 o'clock p.m._

_Corn_

Kyoko could hardly believe her own eyes. She read the content of the letter over and over again until she knew it by heart. A whole bunch of different feelings spread through her. First of all there was the surprise to receive a letter from Corn, whom she haven't heard of for seven years, then there was the astonishment as how he had found her in general and of course there was the unbridled joy she felt for the mere fact that she could possibly see her childhood friend, comforter and fairyprince again.

Indeed she already had her own explanation for the mystery as how Corn had found out her current domicile. After all he was a prince and surely had other ways to get informations than an ordinary commoner like her.

The whole rest of the evening her thoughts kept to twirl and swirl around the sender of the letter.

What would he look like? Would he even recognize her? Could he break free from his fathers control?

Frequently memories of the past were mixed in between. Pictures of their meetings in the forest came to her mind, his smile, his acrobatic capabilities and all this put her in a blissfull state.

Exhausted from thinking so much she fell in a deep sleep with the letter in the one and her treasured blue stone in the other hand, an unmistakably happy smile on her lips.

* * *

On the other side of the city a young man with silver colored hair lay on his black leather coach and pleasurably looked at the skyline of Tokio, on which he had a great view from his apartment in the 20th floor. Slowly his eyes started to gaze in the distance and his thoughts drifted from the faszination, which was triggered by the sight of the nocturnal city, to a subject which caught his interest for a whole other reason and with an utterly different level of attraction.

As he thought of his plan, which he had finally completeted just yesterday after endless days of investigation a smug smile appeared on his face. He hadn't wasted another minute and began to carry out his devilish plot yesterday, too.

Yeah, everything was perfect. He had all the informations he needed of her childhoodfriend from herself and her blue stone by their 'meetings' in Karuizawa. Now all he had to do was waiting for a chance to get to her, without having the bothersome original around to destroy everything.

It had lasted a while, but next week at last his chance would come. She'll be his. With this action his reward will be her entire hate and he'll enjoy it to the fullest.

The moon shíned on his face and in his eyes flamed the carving.

* * *

**no idea if tokio really has a city parc or not, just think of it as sth. similar to the central parc in NY (well maybe a little bit smaller ^^)


	2. Chapter 1

Ren Tsuruga sat in the plane back to Tokio and for the first time in nearly two weeks felt a tinge of joy bubble up in his body, after he spent the last 12 days shooting some scenes for his latest project in the depths of the countryside.

In the past, before he developed feelings for Kyoko, he had loved it to be on location. It had always been a welcome distraction from everyday life and he had seen a lot of places, but apperently the only function now,was to put a distance between him and the person he desired the most. So it should be unsuprising that, to say the least he wasn't really pleased with the situation. In fact he found it annoying to waste his time in some foreign country, while he missed the pleasure of "coincidental" meetings with the 17-year-old girl, which never failed to make his day.

However this time was worse. He had barely arrived, as he noticed that he was caught in a dead spot. No chance of getting through. On inquiry he came to know that virtual the whole area was a big fat dead spot on the map and the closest telephone-linked place would imply a 3-hour trip. He didn't want to cause a sensation, by renting a car solely because he had the urge to call someone. Even if that someone was the girl he loved, so he resigned himself to not calling Kyoko.

But he was already a lost cause, he needed her like a flower needed the sunshine to be in full bloom. Of course on the outside he was the well mannered gentleman, but under the surface he fell apart. Sometimes he wondered what she would do, if she knew she unconsciously had him twisted around her litttle finger.

'She would be aghast and avoid me like the plague.' he thought with a bitter smile on his lips.

His manager cared about that precious little. Whenever his charge let his guard down he teased him with the exact time he still had to suffer til the reunion. After he endured it a few times eventually even someone like Ren Tsuruga is at the end of his tether. So he asked the older man whether he wore a wristwatch with integrated countdown or whence he could tell him the residual time to the split second and he believed he actually saw a trace of abashment on his managers face while the said men tried to keep something hidden behind his back.

Slowly the self-proclaimed matchmaker comprehended that he maybe killed the tall actor with kindness, 'cos if the lovesick man thought of Kyoko 90 percent of the time before,yet pigs might fly to catch his attention. Nevertheless the whole crew praised him for his outstanding professionalism. What they didn't knew was that he'd give his eyeteeth to shorten the shooting albeit just for a day.

Unfortunately his wish was barely granted. He indeed managed to successfully finish his scenes in merely ten days, but thus the director had the bright idea to relocate the shootings for promotion purposes to this place as well. Originally that is to say those should be mugged in front of a white background and then edited on the pc additional. But since they were way ahead of the schedule, two days had been estimated to take the photos in front of the proper setting.

For eternity Yukihito Yashiro would dislike to recall this particular moment as he had to tell Ren the news. The young man already sat next to his packed bags and drank a cup of coffee, as his manager informed him of the change as if he had to confess a murder. His assumption proofed to be right as the actor had some trouble to keep the black liquid in his mouth. Still the visible suprise was not a patch on the so-called Demon Lord who followed seconds later. He gave off an aura that would make children cry and grown-ups ran off as fast as they could, if not for the tenthousand watt smile, that in contrast graced his handsome face. Luckily for the blond this state only lasted a few minutes and made room for deep-drawn sighs.

*****

Finally they were back in Tokio. It was 4 o'clock p.m. on a sunny friday as both men left the plane.

Ren's first official act was to call Kyoko. Or trying to call would probably fit better. He was so focused on absorbing every tiny detail of her voice, that he primarily didn't notice, that he just heard her voice mail. Subconciously he realised it at least to the extent of being able to leave her a "Hello Mogami-san. Ren Tsuruga speaking. I would appreciate if you could return my call. Goodbye."

Once he had cut off the connection, he stared absentminded at his mobile phone while he attempted to put his thoughts in the right order. Eventually he decided that he missed the girl too much as to wait for her call and for starters checked if she was still at work.

"Hello, Sawara speaking."

"Hello Sawara-san. This is Ren Tsuruga."

"Oh Tsuruga-san, are you back in Tokio already?"

"Yes, we landed just half an hour ago."

"Is there a reason for your call?"

"Well, yeah. I wanted to ask if Mogami-san is around."

"No, she just left. You should know that she rearranged her working schedule, so that she has to bustle the whole evening in order to have a day off tomorrow."

Ren was considering his chances for persuading Kyoko to spent some time with him on the next day and simply forgot that the chef of the talent section was still on the line til said man piped up again.

"You should have seen the girl. Since almost two weeks she's skipping around in the LME building, always humming songs and smiling brightly. But when I ask her she just answers 'Corn' and drifts into her own cosmos again. 'Corn' - Wasn't that one of her friends? Do you know something about it Tsuruga-san?"

"I think so. Anyway thank you for the information. Have a nice evening."

"You as well Tsuruga-san. Goodbye."

Deliberately slow the 21-year-old man lowered his arm, anxious not to drop the mobile phone because of his shaking hand. In that instant his manager turned around the corner with their luggage and given that he had some experience for reading the actors face by now, he immediately asked if something was the matter.

'Although 'Yashiro thought 'one neither have to be a genius nor an expert to see that. Ren was paler than the whitest limestone wall and seemed to be merely physical present.'

Meanwhile in his mind's eye Ren saw a number of scenes, one as absurd as the other and none of it made sense. How should she know that he was Corn? Even if she knew, she would hardly be happy about that fact. Perhaps she had made some time for him tomorrow...no that wasn't possible, because she had to assume that he returned on sunday.

His head was spinning when a nudge against his shoulder brought him back to reality. Baffled he shook his head and sought for the cause of the light bump. He looked to his left and found it in a slightly nervous Yashiro who pointed a finger to Ren's hand.

" I believe you have a call."

He brought his view back to his hands and saw that the blond was right. Within seconds he accepted the call without looking at the caller ID.

"Hello Ren Tsuruga speaking."

"Good evening Tsuruga-san. Here's Mogami-san. I'm sorry for the disturbance, but I wasn't sure if there still would be time to return your call later tonight."

"Not at all. If someone should be apologizing, then it should be me for bothering you to return my call when you're so busy."

"You can't say that. As your kohai, it's my duty to return the call at any rate. Moreover it's entirely my own fault that my appointments are so closely following eachother tonight."

Ren inwardly winced that she referred to the call as a 'duty' again, but tried to keep a calm voice.

"Why is that?"

"Oh right, I hadn't the chance to tell you because I never reached your phone. Anyway, I have great news! I told you about the fairyprince Corn I met in my childhood,didn't I? Do you remember?"

He gulped once before he answered with a hesitant "Yes".

"He sent me a letter and want to meet me tomorrow. Isn't that awesome Tsuruga-san? At long last I'm going to see him again."

This was enough to set off the alarm bells in the tall actors head. Could it be, that anyone knew about his true identity? Or could it be that this someone was purely interested in Kyoko? Whatever the reason, he had to take action.

"Mogami-san, are you sure that the letter is from Corn?"

"I'm absolut positive about that, because he signed it with his name."

There was a short silence between both of them in which neither knew how to continue the conversation. Slowly but surely Kyoko started getting uneasy.

"I'm sorry Tsuruga-san, but my next job starts in ten minutes and I still have to change my clothes before that. Is there anything else you need to discuss with me?"

In that moment Ren made a decision.

"Actually there is something I haven't asked yet."

"Uh...yes?"

"Would you mind to take me along to your meeting with Corn?"

Unnecessary to say that Kyoko was confused, but as she thought things through she found no objections.

"Just as you like. Corn won't mind. I bet he'll be glad to meet my sempai. It's a pity that I didn't thought of that before. I could have asked Moko-san to come with me as well, but she's probably packed with work."

"When should I come to pick you up tomorrow?"

"If it doesn't cause trouble for you, then 1:30 p.m. should be sufficient."

"It's alright. Then I see you tomorrow."

"Yes, see you later Tsuruga-san" Kyoko replied cheerfully. Sure enough she was waiting fevereshly for the next day.

For the umpteeth time, the young men was deep in though and his surroundings became blurry in front of his eyes. However the major difference this time was, that his mind wasn't occupied with the girl he loved wholeheartedly, but instead with the unknown author of a letter who could destroy everything he cared for in his life.

* * *

Thanks everyone for reading and reviewing my story.


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